1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a catalyst for the adsorption of hydrocarbons used in an apparatus for purifying exhaust gas from an internal combustion engine in automobiles and the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
As a catalyst for purifying the exhaust gas from the internal combustion engine, there are generally used catalysts simultaneously conducting oxidation of carbon monoxide (CO) and hydrocarbon (HC) and reduction of nitrogen oxides (NOx). Such a catalyst is generally formed by adding a noble metal such as Pd, Pt, Rh or the like and, if necessary, a rare earth metal such as Ce, La or the like or a base metal oxide of Ni or the like as a cocatalyst ingredient to an alumina coat layer formed on a refractory carrier as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 58-20307.
The above catalyst is strongly influenced by a temperature of exhaust gas and an air-fuel ratio set in the engine. In general, the temperature of exhaust gas is not lower than 300.degree. C. for developing the purification performance through the catalyst, while the air-fuel ratio is near to theoretical air-fuel ratio (A/F=14.6) balancing the oxidation of HC and CO and the reduction of NOx for most effectively acting the catalyst. Therefore, an exhaust gas purifying device using the conventional three-way catalyst is arranged in an automobile so as to effectively serve the three-way catalyst, whereby the oxygen concentration of the exhaust system is detected to conduct feedback control for holding a fuel mixing ratio at about theoretical air-fuel ratio.
Even if the conventional three-way catalyst is disposed just behind an exhaust manifold, when the temperature of the exhaust gas is low immediately after the start of the engine (not higher than 300.degree. C.), the catalyst activity is low and a great amount of HC discharged from the engine immediately after the engine start is discharged without purification.
In order to solve the above problem, there are proposed devices for the purification of exhaust gas in which HC trapper including an adsorbent for adsorbing cold HC is arranged in an upstream side of a catalyst convertor (Japanese Patent laid open No. 2-135126. That is, the adsorbent is comprised by carrying at least one catalytic metal on a monolith coated with zeolite.
In the HC adsorbent disclosed in Japanese Patent laid open No. 2-135126, however, there are problems that (1) since Y-type zeolite or mordenite is used as the zeolite, the HC adsorption ability is insufficient due to a great influence of water; (2) since noble metal is impregnated in a downstream side of the adsorbent, HC releases from an upstream side of the adsorbent before the catalyst reaches to an activity temperature; (3) since metal is carried after the coating of zeolite, the ion exchange is not sufficiently conducted and hence the adsorption ability becomes insufficient.